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These are questions and answers that were previously posted to the Q & A page but have been archived here to keep the latest Q & A shorter and more manageable for download.

PC1512	Using EGA card
PC1512	Donating machine to charity
Integra	Reinstalling software
PC3086	Using keyboard on other PCs
PC2286	Getting Logitech mouse working
General	The most stupid question EVER!
Integra	Drive access problem
PC3386	Drive problems after upgrade
PC1640	Secondhand values?
Year2000	Is 1640 compliant
PDA600	Won't start
Monitor	Looking for ECD service info
PC3286	Using multiple drives
PC3386	Replacing drive controller
PCW9512	Fitting 3.5" drive
PC1512	Mouse information
PC2286	Setting hard drive info
CPC	Looking for PC based emulators
ALT386	Using 800x600 mode
PC9486	Adding memory
PC1640	Various questions
PPC512	General info. request
PcW16	Expanding memory
PC2086	Locating missing cursor
PC7386	Accessing setup in BIOS
PDA600	Machine won't start
PcW16	Expanding memory
ALT386	Fitting a modem
PC1640	Need system discs
PPC	Need start up discs
PPC	Adding drive / monitor
PC5086	Looking for software
PPC	Finding Organizer software
PCW	Need boot disc
PC1640	Making 720K floppy work
CPC6128	Keyboard read error
PC9486	Jazz soundcard drivers
PC1386	Keyboard pin out
PCW	Need boot disc
PCW9512	Daisywheel won't print
General	Indexphone question
PDA600	Trying to buy one
Printer	Windows & drivers for DMP2160
Printer	Windows & drivers for DMP2160
PC6400	Upgrade ideas?
PC200	Need monitor pinout
PPC	Fitting second floppy
PCW	Boot/floppy problem
PC5286	Trying to get it going

Christopher Ryburn in Australia at 23:4:38 Monday February 9 98
Greetings! I am an Amstrad fan from way back, my last machine being a 386 notebook that lasted me many years here in Australia. My son came home with a PC5286 last week, and a printer he had bought at a garage sale fro $10.00! The machine booted up, but you guess it, the hard drive was incorrectly set. I took the top off, checked the hard drive (a seagate), and got the info from them. When I booted the machine up again, I now don't even get to boot up. After turning on I get a blank screen and no activity. I've reset the cmos as the manual suggests. No change. Is it possible the video chip is kaput? Help!! My son is anxiously waiting for me to get it going.
Amstrad answers: I don't see that the video chip would have died overnight unless you did something real nasty like hitting it with a hammer or something! Far more likely is that some cable has just been knocked off inside or a chip knocked loose. It's not uncommon for the SIMMs to get knocked when you're inside a PC so give them a firm push to make sure they're seated and wiggle any loose cables in there. If there are any other socketed chips (and the CMOS and BIOS in particular) make sure they are pushed fully home into their sockets. Also have a look at the VGA socket/plug to make sure that there wasn't a pin bent when removing/attaching the monitor and, if possible, try that monitor out on a different PC to see if it's that that has gone West.

markie robson-scott in UK at 13:49:44 Monday February 9 98
I have just tried to use my Amstrad 8512 after 2 years of it sitting in a corner. Now it won't read the start-up discs. I need to get some data off a disc. Does anyone know somewhere that transfers data onto Mac discs?
Amstrad answers: Did you read this? Although it says "Windows" I really meant "any modern computer". Try Mapej or Dave's DDS.

Will Thurley at 11:38:24 Monday February 9 98
I have been trying to add a second floppy drive to my PPC640 and managed to get hold of a 720k drive that works fine on other PCs and fit into my PPC640 perfectly with the correct connections. However my system won't recognise the second drive. I tried disconnecting the standard A drive and just connecting my new one but the computer start up gave me a 'SYSTEM ERROR - Faulty floopy driver or disk drive drive' or some't. I remember you saying that a PPC640 cannot run 1.44MB drives due to the higher clock speed. Could this be the problem with my 720k drive? Is the fact that one floppy drive power cable has three wires and the other has the third removed significant? Could the switch on the drive itself be of any use? Thanks in advance.
Amstrad answers: Yup, it sounds suspiciously like that drive is really a 1.44MB mechanism (I suppose it would have been too much to ask the manufacturers to actually put a label on the out side!!). You really need a true 720K mechanism and in this day and age they probably rarer than rocking horse droppings. It's vaguely possible that CPC/Edcom may stock them as spare parts but you are probably talking some pretty major wonga to get hold of one and is it really worth it when a whole PPC is worth £20-30?

steve in UK at 17:50:42 Sunday February 8 98
Help. I have a Sinclair PC200 and Monitor, its a Amstrad S14cm the one that came with the P200, but the D connector on the computer end is faulty, I need the Pinouts for the monitor there are 10 holes on the computer end and 10 wires to fill the holes but what and where, if poss I need someone to give tell me what colours to what pin NO. Help
Amstrad answers: I think your only hope would be to contact CPC/Edcom and see if they have a service manual for that monitor. It will be a standard monitor (either CGA or MD depending on whether it is colour or not) so at a pinch you may be able to pick up a replacement at a computer auction, junk shop or in classified ads. but the fact that CGA is now 14 years old may make it quite tricky to track one down.

T. G. Miller in Peru, Indiana (USA) at 13:56:0 Sunday February 8 98
I have a dinosaur Amstrad PC6400, double floppy (5 1/4) I have put a hard card into it and also attached a 3 1/2 floppy backpack. Unfortunately, I do not have enough guts in this machine to run windows 95 and other programs. Any suggestions how I can upgrade this monster. My wife is absolutely in love with this machine and will not hear of getting rid of it. Please, someone give me some suggestions or point me in the right direction. Unfortunately, living in Peru, Indiana (USA) not too many people have ever heard of an AMSTRAD computer let alone ever seeing one in the flesh. If you can help, e-mail me at tgm@netusa1.net Thanks T.G. Miller
Amstrad answers: Hi, as I told you via email I'm afraid Lawson's first law of computing applies here. It's the old "can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear" syndrome as described here.

Marcin Frankowski in Wellington, New Zealand at 15:2:38 Saturday February 7 98
I would like to add to my message posted a few hours ago: the IBM drivers for IBM Proprinter series work with DMP-2160 as well as the Epson FX-80; also several OKI drivers (eg. OKI ML 182 Elite/IBM) are working just fine. Best results are with Epson and IBM Proprinter drivers. Sorry for messing up.
Amstrad answers: No problemo and it's always useful for people to tell me about these things here or in email as it helps me to make this a more comprehensive site. The reason all those different drivers works is basically because at one time Epson set the standard for 9 pin printers and everyone made sure that there own printers worked like the Epson because there was tons of DOS based software that didn't have the wide range of printer support that Windows does but you could always pretty much bet on it having an "Epson compatible" (or FX80) entry. That was in the DOS days when each program had it's own individual printer support. 'Course one of the joys of Windows is that you just have to make the driver selection once and get it working and then you can be sure that every subsequent Windows based program that you use with it will just work. Anyway, thanks for being so helpful.

Marcin Frankowski in Wellington, New Zealand at 13:35:7 Saturday February 7 98
Hi! I just went through your tips for getting Amstrad printers to work under Win 95, and would like to add that my Amstrad DMP-2160 works well using not only Epson driver, but IBM too (tested it with "IBM-compatible generic 9-pin" driver supplied with my version of Windows, perhaps it does have some equivalent for a particular IBM model). It printed slower, and graphics was worse than when used with Epson driver, but it might be a solution for someone not having access to Epson driver. By the way, the driver for Epson FX-80 is the same as the driver named "Epson Compatible 9-pin", if it is any help to anybody.
Amstrad answers: Thanks for that additional info, I'll update my page to include that though I think you'll find that everyone who has Windows 95 will have the Epson drivers because a) they ARE (or at least were) THE industry standard and have always been included on the Windows 95 CD and discs. However I hadn't realised that there was a generic "Epson compatible 9-pin" because, I guess through force of habit, I have always just picked Epson FX80 for any 9 pin dot matrix of unknown pedigree as 99 times out of 100 it just works.

Nic Foxton in Skipton, North Yorkshire. at 0:24:20 Friday February 6 98
Is there anyone in the UK still selling the Pen Pad PDA600 and it's accesories? I've found Directmobile in the US selling them at $50 a piece, but the delivery is $85 - $100, so it's out of the question. Is there anyone out there can help in the UK?
Amstrad answers: The only person I know of in the UK who might still have PDA600s is Peter Mydlarz at SCA Ltd who can(?) be found at sca@sussex.co.uk but people who have contacted me recently said that they have had difficulty getting through to him both via phone and email so I kind of wonder if the company has gone tits up (pardon the phrase!).
I'm astonished by that US delivery charge - for that money I'd expect it delivered to my door by helicopter wrapped in gold leaf! If you knew anyone in the US they could buy it for you and then mail it. However I suppose that even with a $90 delivery charge it still works out at just £85 (£1 = $1.64) and the cheapest I've ever known them to be sold for in the UK is £99 so it's actually still a bargain even with the extortionate delivery charge. Remember that when we first sold them they were £299 and I think they actually cost £140 just for the components alone!

Ludo Sak in Den Bosch, The Netherlands at 23:19:47 Thursday February 5 98
Dear reader,
I have bought my dream phone! It it a bit on the late side, but I seldom saw it and seldom had the opportunity to buy one: my very own IndexPhone iX1000! Nice and clear design, functional (although the backup batery was empty when I bought it) (due to long inventory time I guess).. Q: Does the IndexLink software for linking the phone with a PC, still exist? I'd love to have a copy of it! Thanks all! Ludo, who started his computer carreer with a ZX81 in 83/84
Amstrad answers: Hi, one of the first computers I owned was a ZX80 in 1980. As to Index Link, I'm afraid I don't know of a source for the software but if someone out there reading this has a copy and wants to email it to me (cliffl@amstrad.com) then I'll put it up on my files download page for others to take a copy.

David Bryan in E17 at 21:58:48 Thursday February 5 98
PRINTER PROBLEM WITH PCW9512.
I have a PCW 9512 with original printer which while trying it's best - just cannot print. It feeds paper, the daisy wheel spins and the hammer bashes the character BUT it JUST doesn't have enough impact to contact the ribbon and transfer ink onto paper. (The ribbon does have ink by the way). Looking at the print mechanism the hammer appears to be driven by a solenoid. My initial diagnosis is that the current is insufficient to the solenoid. The fact that the printing menu allows the printer impact to be varied also makes me think that there is a degree of control for the solenoid. Is is possible to change a configurable parameter to increase the print impact and get the printer working again, or can you suggest other repair options?
Amstrad answers: I think it is suffering from the same ailment that afflicts a lot of 9512s which is a hair line crack in the striking hammer so that it is no longer able to deliver sufficient impact pressure to actually print. There is only one solution and that is to replace the print head. Spare parts are available as described here but it may be quite expensive and considering that you can pick up second hand PCWs in small ads. for £20 or less that may be the cheaper alternative to getting a replacement. Also try Micro Mart that you will find in WH Smiths and perhaps also try asking on news:comp.sys.amstrad.8bit

Colin McCormick in Plymouth, England at 20:27:35 Thursday February 5 98
A friend has just purchased a PcW10, but the CP/M boot disk is missing. I know Locomotive do it at £15 but as a schoolkid living in care she can't afford it. Anyone help? There's also a Spell checking disk but we don't know how to get this to work. Did the PcW10 have spell checking normally? I used to own a PcW512 so I have some idea what it's about. Many thanks for any help (email reply if possible).
Amstrad answers: Sorry but the only source I know of for the disks is Locomotive. Perhaps some benevolent soul reading this will send you a copy - I would myself expect that we no longer have either PCWs or copies of the boot discs here any more. As for spell checking, I think the PCW10 did include a copy of Locospell on the boot disc. It's use should be fairly self evident as it just integrates into the main Locoscript program but again, for the full facts, www.locomotive.com really is the best source of information.

Doug M in saskatchewan Canada at 18:7:39 Thursday February 5 98
I need a pin out for the keyboard of a Amstrad Model PC1386
Amstrad answers: Presumably you are thinking of either trying to connect some other type of keyboard to a 1386 or the 1386 keyboard to some other type of PC. This is not possible. For more details read this.

Doug in Surrey at 1:21:24 Wednesday February 4 98
Where can I get technical support or repairs for a JAZZ 16 Sound card that came included in my PC9486 (purchased in December 94)?...The audio output seems to have failed but control of the CD-ROM still works. The Installation & Users guide supplied by Amstrad doesn't mention manufacturer name or contact number. Checking some of the files seems to indicate that the card was made by a company called Media Vision Inc but looking this company up on the Web results in (an identiclly named company)a marketing outfit. If your opinion is that it isn't feasible, or worthwhile getting my card fixed - can you recommend an alternative? Many thanks
Amstrad answers: Well I'm afraid my brutally honest answer is that it would be a waste of your time and money to get it repaired. You can buy a brand new soundcard with equivalent functions to that card for about £10-15. I'm sure it would cost you more than this in postage alone even if you could find someone who could repair yours but that leads me to another question - are you sure it's in need of phyiscal repair. 99 times out of 100 soundcards don't work purely because of a fault in the way in which the driving software has been set up - course if the dog chewed it or something then I'm willing to believe that it is physically damaged. If you are going to buy a new one I'd consider spending a little bit more than the bottom end £10-15, if you could stretch to just £50 you can get a far more "sexy" soundcard but I guess it depends whether you are just using it for playing WAV files and games sounds or whether you want to use it for making real music. If the latter then I'd recommend getting a copy of the Feb 98 "Sound on Sound" magazine form your local WH Smiths (fraid it's a bit expensive at £3-60) but they have a comparison of PC sound cards (for the purposes of making music) on page 102.

Malc Davies in Oxfordshire UK at 2:57:35 Tuesday February 3 98
I have recently unearthed my CPC 6128 from the attic where it has spent the last 5 years. The reason I stopped using it was a duff disk drive. (simply a worn belt as I now realise). Having replaced the belt and got the disc working I now seem to have another problem. Some of the keys dont appear to work. Namely (SPC z v , . DEL) There are a couple of others but I have left the list at home. I had a similar problem on a Dragon 32 and it was a faulty chip. but in that instance I had all of the drawings and quite a few manuals. Is anyone able to point me in the right direction as to which chip it is worth changing. Its not the membrane or the ribon cable to the board as I have tested all this out. TIA Malc
Amstrad answers: Well the keyboard is scanned by two chips, one is the 8255 which is a three port parallel interface chip and the other is the AY38912 sound chip which also contains an 8 bit I/O parallel port and the AY chip is, itself, connected to one+ ports of the 8255. However, as I'm sure you know, silicon hardly ever goes wrong (unless you apply hugely incorrect voltages to it!) and it is more likely a fault in solder joints or cracks in PCB tracks so I'd maybe just warm the solder pads on those ICs to hopefully cure any dry joints and then "buzz out" the lines from the chips through the keyboard matrix but it's that (very mechanical) matrix that I'd suspect most. The other way that keyboards fail is actually because a broken joystick is connected (and it's just an extension of the key matrix) so, before anything else, I'd remove any joystick(s) that may be connected and see if that solves the problem.

Gilbert Durand in Woodward Oklahoma USA at 17:46:5 Sunday February 1 98
I have a xt 1640, It has 2 Floppys . 1. 3 1/2 1 5 1/4 the xt page tells me that 1 should be a 720 drv & other a 360 . They both format at 360, I did not know that a 3 1/2 360 was ever made. or is there something wrong Thanks For any Help Gilbert Durand Woodward,OK USA
Amstrad answers: Ah well the BIOS in a 1640 is fairly firmly convinced that the floppy drives are both 360K 5.25" drives and even though you and I know that B: is a 720K 3.5" it doesn't! Not yet anyway. That's why you've got to tell it and the way you do that is by adding a line to Config.Sys - now there are actually two ways to do it and I can never totally remember the difference between the two methods but they both achieve pretty much the same effect. Method one is to use a DRIVPARM command while method two is to use a DEVICE={wherever}\DRIVER.SYS command. In both cases the parameters following the command are almost identical. From memory it is comething like /D:1 /F:7 - where D:1 means the second drive (aka B:), D:0 would be drive A:. And F:7 is the type of drive and F:7 means a 720K 3.5" drive (other values documented in your MS-DOS manual).

Tristan Hales at 14:10:5 Friday January 30 98
Hello, Has anyone got a boot disk for a PCW9512+ ?, (or a link). Thank you Tristan
Amstrad answers: Oops, sorry! I could have sworn that my PCW page listed www.locomotive.com as the place to get boot disks but I just checked and it didn't so I've now added that information here.

Thijs Riemersma in Zeist, The Netherlands at 16:19:41 Wednesday January 28 98
My uncle has a PPC640 which is slowly but surely falling apart. He bought a Toshiba Portable as a substitute and asked me to set things up and transfer his data. On the PPC he uses the program PPC Organizer. This program does NOT work on the Toshiba (Error: This is not an Amstrad!). Does PPC Organizer exist for a standard DOS machine or is there an emulator for the PPC? The CPC emulator does not seem to do the trick. Thanks for helping out.
Amstrad answers: I seem to remember that PPC Organizer was written by a company called "Triangle" so you'd need to track them down (if they still exist) to see if they had a "generic" version that works on any IBM PC compatible. The PPC is 99.99% IBM compatible but it has a slight oddity in it's video controller that is slightly different to a "Standard" CGA controller and the Organiser software looks for this and refuses to work unless it thinks it is working on a PPC. This was done because the software authors were effectively "giving it away free" with the PPC and didn't want people to be able to use this "free" version on other computers (so presumably they DID sell a generic version). The only way you can make it work on a non-PPC would be to debug the code and find the test (where it is doing I/O to video controller I/O addresses) and some how patch the code to make it think it is on a PPC even when it isn't. You would, of course, need to understand 8086 assembler programming to do this (and you'd be in violation of the licence agreement that came with the software). There's no such thing as a PPC "emulator" because a PPC is, like I say, an IBM PC clone and so any PC emulates it apart from that one small detail about it's odd video controller. If you can't get it working then I'd point out that there were loads of "Personal Information Management (PIM)" programs written for PC compatibles around that time. Probably the most famous was one called "Sidekick" and you may still be able to get copies of that. By the way, the CPC was a Z80 based games computer we made that had 64K of memory. It is NOTHING to do with the PPC which was a much later 8068 based IBM PC clone with 640K of memory.

Bryan Lurring in N.Ireland at 20:23:59 Tuesday January 27 98
Where can I get software for a PC 5086? (It was bought in 1991)
Amstrad answers: Facetious answer - you go to your local computer store and buy anything that says it's designed for an IBM compatible PC. Real answer - Of course it's not really that easy because that is a very old PC based on the 8086 processor with only 640K of conventional memory. However there were tens of thousands of programs written in the old IBM PC/XT days and you used to be able to download buckets full from bulletin boards all over the place. Unfortunately as the internet has grown the availability of BBS has reduced and what's more people only seem to put "modern" (i.e. Windows) software on web sites but I have had a hunt round and there are some sites with old DOS stuff. I think one might have been called something like www.msdos.com but I don't quite remember (I'm sure you'll find it via a search engine. Another line of attack is that the file libraries on both Compuserve and AOL are stuffed full of old software from the late 80s and early 90s and there's tons of old DOS based programs to choose from there if you happen to be a member of either service.

Will Thurley at 11:4:18 Tuesday January 27 98
I recently bought a PPC640. I also was given a Tandy Z80 based machine which I ripped to pieces to see what I could salvage from it. The only thing worth taking was a hard drive which may or may not work. I'm wondering whether it is possible to connect this hard drive up to my PPC. I took my PPC apart to discover cables which I assume would be used to connect a second floppy drive. There is a two pin connector which is presumably the power supply and a fifty pin connector for data transfer. Would these be suitable for connecting to an old hard drive? My only real concern is that the hard drive has an extra connection which has about twenty pins. Thanks in advance.
Hi, I just wrote to you about connecting a hard drive to my PPC640. I am also wondering how to replace the battery as I unfortunately have to tell the machine what time it is every time I switch it on. I'm sorry to bother you with such trivialities which I would probably find in the manual but unfortunately I don't have one. Thanks again.
I've just thought of another question for you regarding my PPC640. I have connected a green IBM monitor to my PPC which seems to do a fairly good job of offering me a variety of shades of green to replace the four colours however when I run graphical software that would be okay on the LCD screen the monitor flashes several of the colours making the programs fairly unusable. I have fiddled with the DIP switches to try and solve the problem but with no joy. Any ideas? Thanks again.
Amstrad answers: As you've no doubt spotted, I've edited your three questions together. The first thing I suggest you do is read my portables page to see what I say about PPC hard drives. The PPC does not have a built in hard disk interface and any loose cables are for something else (the modem at a wild guess). To add an HD you'd need to add an IDE interface controller but this is very technically difficult because the ISA bus that is brought to the back of the unit is unbuffered and unlatched so it's not a simple case of running the pins to the right fingers on an IDE ISA card - there's an awful lot more to it than that! Anyway, the hard disk out of a Tandy Z80 8-bit computer is unlikely be suitable for a PC anyway. As for the battery. The machine runs from five (I think it is) alkaline "C" cells that you put inside the unit. They should maintain the RTC from one use to the next. A "green" IBM monitor is almost certainly an "MD" monitor and can only be used to display text modes. You'd need to connect an IBM CGA monitor in order to show graphics modes - remember this is an IBM PC/XT compatible we are delaing with here - not an IBM AT with VGA!!

Vince Roberts in Gloucester, England at 11:13:14 Sunday January 25 98
My father runs a small charity group and has just inherited a PPC512 for "word-smithing"! However, he does not have any diskettes, for the OS, or anything else. Are these obtainable. It would appear from your web site, that MS-DOS 3.3, for example, on a 720k diskette would be OK? Does the floppy require the normal sector, etc., formatting?
Amstrad answers: Spot on! You can just use any version of MS-DOS, PC-DOS or DR-DOS you choose as long as it is on 720K, NOT 1.44MB floppies. If you want the "real" PPC system disks then visit my file archive and get ppcdisks.zip

David Hughes in Bangor gwynedd Wales at 8:22:46 Saturday January 24 98
I am trying to setup the autoexec.bat file on a pc1640sd the file was corrupted by aa friend using the computer and I dont have the setup disks. To make things more complicated the machine I am using to send this is a Windows based machine and not mine can you send me an e-mail list of the standard autoexec.bat file. Anyhelp would be of use David Hughes
Amstrad answers: You maybe didn't realise this but the answer was here all the time. If you go to my files download page and get the 470001.Zip file which is an image of the first 1640 system disk then you'll find a copy of the "standard" Autoexec.Bat file in there. Just download the file, unzip it and then use FDCOPY to copy the compressed floppy image (CFI) file onto a blank 5.25" disk and you'll then have an exact copy of the 1640 system disk number 1.

Nigel A in Sydney Australia at 11:21:32 Thursday January 22 98
I have an ALT-386SX with 4megRAM, 120megHDD and Windows 95. Is it possible to fit a half card modem in the expansion slot. I have tried with Nettcom INModem34plus but cant get it to work. Are there jumpers or dip-switches to alter? Are there more suitable modems?
Amstrad answers: I know from personal experience that it is quite possible to use a modem in the ISA slot but it must be jumpered to appear as a COM port that won't clash with the ALT's existing COM port which is, I guess, your problem.

Brian Watson in Sutton, ELY, Cambs at 18:15:48 Wednesday January 21 98
Re: my recent posting on expanding the PcW16's memory, John of Cirtech has responded that his company do not offer upgrades of this type. Reason given was partly the cost vs benefit argument, which I suspected anyway, but the other point he made was that the latest o/s, v1.12 I assume, would not support an upgraded "cabinet". Is that correct? Regards.
Amstrad answers: John is actually wrong. Our OS in the PcW16 is really quite clever and will dynamically adjust if it spots the existence of the second MB of Flash (and DRAM for that matter). I know this works because I've got the only PcW16 in the whole world with 2MB of Flash and 2MB of DRAM fitted but, like I said, there isn't really much to be gained by it.

Demian De Wit in A public library in Antwerp at 17:21:23 Wednesday January 21 98
Last week I posted a question about my dead PenPad PDA 600. First, let me thank you for your quick answer! Like you said, I tried shorting the battery terminals, but still my PDA won't start! Is there anything else I can try to make my pad work again? Maybe a component that has to be replace or something? PLEASE HELP ME, I'M DESPERATE WITHOUT MY PDA! MAKE MY PORTABLE COMPUTING LIFE HAPPY AGAIN! Thanks in advance!
Amstrad answers: Well it's impossible to diagnose which chip may have gone without an engineer being able to test the thing directly so my only suggestion is for you to contact computer service centres in your area and see if any of them can have a look at it.

Serge Bloch in Brussels ,Belgium at 13:18:50 Wednesday January 21 98
Hello, In all your information that can be find on this site I can't get any information for or about the Amstrad PC7386SX40. How do I get into setup with a good working battery? How large is the setup file on your site? Thanks ps : Is it normal that downloding and getting on this site takes a very very long time ( average loading speed of 0.3 kbps when by oder site a have a loading speed betwen 13 and 20 kbps) .I have a direct connection with the belgacom backboon thru a 3com ethernet card 10MB
Amstrad answers: You know when you switch on the 7386 and it says "[F2] to enter Setup" on the bottom of the screen. Well that's a clue! You don't need the Setup.Exe file from this web site because that's for the older PC models that didn't have Setup built into the BIOS.
As for speed of access, that's because the UK Online site where these pages live get totally over-run by "home users" once the phone switches to cheap rate in the UK outside office hours (0900GMT to 1700GMT). It's also partly a problem with the UK Online backbone provider and UKO have stated that they are going to switch to Easynet (who recently bought UK Online) for their backbone in a couple of weeks and then the access speed whould be dramatically improved.

Dave Peacock in Essex, UK at 9:55:19 Tuesday January 20 98
I have a 2086/30 and the cursor does not show up on the C prompt I.E. I get C:\> but no cursor. I can still use the computer, and the cursor does show in some cases. I have used a cursor defining program to try to get it back without success. Please help.
Amstrad answers: One thing you may be interested to know is that if DOS runs in text mode (the norm) then it does show a cursor but if it runs in a graphics mode then you don't get a cursor. You may have noticed how, sometimes, when you exit from a piece of graphics software back to the DOS prompt there is no cursor. Using the DOS command MODE CO80 will normally force it back to a text mode where the cursor should re-appear. My guess is the reason why yours is always disappearing is that some program that starts either in Config.Sys or Autoexec.Bat is switching to graphics mode and forgetting to put things back afterwards. Try booting with no Config or Autoexec and see if you still have the problem. If not, keep adding lines back to each file and rebooting until you find the culprit. Or, if MODE CO80 restores the cursor just put that command in as the last executed line of Autoexec.

Brian Watson in Sutton, ELY, Cambs. England at 14:0:14 Monday January 19 98
I have been asked by a PcW16 user to whom I supplied a v1.12 upgrade disc where he could obtain the chips necessary to increase the memory, or "ROM and RAM" as he expressed it. He also asked if I could suggest anyone who could do the job for him. Bearing in mind that the present memory seems perfectly adequate for all current software, is the area on the circuit board for memory expansion socketed? And *do* you know of anyone offering this service? Thanks.
Amstrad answers: Well there are sites for an extra 1MB of DRAM and an extra 1MB of Flash on the circuit board but they are not socketed - just solder pads so the job needs to be done by an engineer who is competent at soldering close pitch devices. Anyway, as you say, apart from the flash giving a larger "Cabinet" there is very little reason to upgrade. If the user REALLY wants to upgrade then John Robertson at Cirtech in Scotland knows the insides of a PcW16 like the back of his hand and would be the best person to approach about doing the job. Cirtech are on 01835 823898 and john can be emailed as john@cirtech.co.uk

Wind from Russia in Moscow January 19 98 at 6:19:4 Monday January 19 98
Tell me about PPC-512D
Amstrad answers: That's a very general question but in a nutshell, it's an extremely ugly 8MHz 8086 based portable PC with 512K of DRAM, two 720K 3.5" floppy drives, a 102 key keyboard and a small, non-backlit, LCD screen that shows 640x200 CGA graphics.

mark farrugia London in Rotherhithe, London at 23:54:46 Sunday January 18 98
I've come across an old departmental PCW1640 machine with a 20MB HD that was about to be scrapped and I wonder if there is any way to:
a) change the 5" drive to a more useable 3.5" drive.
b) Its HD has just been reformatted, is there anyway I can install DOS and GWBASIC for experiments etc.
c) Will I be able to install a minimised word to use for wProcessing
I know its a tall order but thanks anyway !
Amstrad answers: a) You can't change A: but you can add a 3.5" B: but it MUST be 720K, not 1.44MB - you then use either DRIVPARM or DEVICE=DRIVER.SYS in Config.Sys to over-ride the BIOS's assumption that B: should be 360K 5.25".
b) To install DOS just boot from a floppy containing the DOS you want to use (I'd higly recommend MS-DOS 6.22) then FORMAT C: /S then copy all the DOS files from the floppies into a \DOS directory on C:
c) In the good ole bad ole days there were loads of DOS based word processors available and many were shareware/PD that you could download from bulletin boards. It's possible some of these may have migrated to people's web pages.

Paul Verity in Essex,uk at 19:57:19 Sunday January 18 98
I have a PC9486, and am having trouble getting the m/b to accept a 16mb 72pin (fast page) simm it only recognises it as a 4mb simm, any help much appreciated. Please reply via email. Thanks.
Amstrad answers: OK, will reply via email.

Dave Green in Bristol at 21:2:45 Friday January 16 98
I can't see this question anywhere else, but if so - sorry! I have an ALT386sx with windows 3.11. The manual implies that the screen will support 800 x 600 but I have tried all the Win 3.11 drivers supplied without any luck? Was there ever a driver that would work? Thanks Dave
Amstrad answers: I presume you mean to an external monitor? obviously there's no way the LCD can do anything more than 640x480. I seem to remember a long saga with the video card manufacturer where they kept issuing updated drivers and it's possible they may have eventually got 800x600 working. I can't remember exactly who they were but have a pretty strong feeling it may have been Cirrus - if you run MSD.EXE that will identify which video chipset is in the ALT. Then access the web site of the relevant company and see if they have a driver for the chipset. Perhaps an easy answer, if you aren't already using the slot is just to buy a very cheap (£20ish) SVGA card and plug it into the ALT's ISA slot and disable the on-board video using the DIP switch (on my ALT page).

Fabien CORTIAL in PARIS ( France ) at 9:5:5 Friday January 16 98
Hi Cliff, sorry to disturb. I have started with computers 12 years ago ( i'm 25 now ) and of course it was with an Amstrad CPC 464 with an external disk drive and almost 100 games an utilities. This was a great time, but I've sold the entire material several years ago, and I wanted to know how I could rediscover the Amstrad on an Intel/pentium machine with Windows 95. I've seen CPC++'s site but it's not working on PC. Please hepl me to enjoy Amstrad's feeling again.
Amstrad answers: Well, as you probably read here on my CPC page, there is still a lot of interest in the CPC and there are quite a few different emulators for it (maybe 3 or 4 on the PC alone). It is regularly discussed on news:comp.sys.amstrad.8bit and the FAQ for that newsgroup can be found via links on my CPC page. The FAQ gives you all the details of where to find the emulators. Also on my CPC page is a link to Kevin Thacker's excellent CPC page and I think he may have the emulators available for download from his page anyway.

Paul Beeston in High Wycombe Bucks. at 14:54:8 Wednesday January 14 98
My friend has an Amstrad 386 (sorry I don't know the model) that has lost it's BIOS setup. The setup parameters for the hard disk have also been lost. He has opened the PC and determined that the type is 17. Please can you give us the setup parameters for a disk of this type?
Amstrad answers: Are you sure it's a 386? I thought we only fitted type 17 drives to 286 machines (they were 40MB drives). To tell you the truth the question about "parameters" is irrelevant because in the Setup.Exe for the 2286 (assuming that's what it is) you only get to enter a type number - it didn't support settable head/track/sector type of parameters. So you just run Setup and enter 17 for the drive number and that's it.

Steve in Stockton-on-Tees at 0:2:42 Wednesday January 14 98
I would like to know the difference between a mouse from an Amstrad 1512,1640,2386 etc and a serial mouse.I have been told that an Amstrad mouse is a bus mouse. How can I renew a mouse for an Amstrad. Do I need a secondhand one from same machine or are there any on the market. Many thanks in anticipation ,Steve
Amstrad answers: I suggest you have a read of this. The bottom line is that those Amstrad mice are neither serial nor Bus mice but a weird Amstrad design. You might still get replacements from www.cpc.co.uk but if it was me I'd just buy a decent "standard" serial mouse for a fiver and whack it onto the PC's COM port. In the case of our AT class machines (2386 etc.) you'll have to disable the motherboard mouse electronics using a link (detailed elsewhere on this web site).

Tom Robson in Milton Keynes at 23:9:18 Tuesday January 13 98
I have a PCW 9512 the original disk drive is 3 inch and does not work very well It has a second 3and half inch TEAC drive which does work well. Can I dispense with the 3 inch drive and make the 3 and half inch drive bootable.?
Amstrad answers: Until recently I would have said not but on the excellent comp.sys.amstrad.8bit Usenet newsgroup I recently heard from several people who had successfully done this so I stand corrected. Apparently you just use Disckit to copy the startup disk from 3" to 3.5" and then refit a 3.5" in place of the 3" drive A: and you can then startup from that 3.5" disk you just made.

Andy Scott in Ascot Berkshire at 19:51:42 Tuesday January 13 98
Thanks for your reply to my questions on 10 January. I have checked all the ribbon cable connections, and they all seem good. I have now tried to boot up both with and without the hard drive connected, with the same result as before. I then took out the floppy drive and fitted it to another PC, and it operated correctly. It now seems obvious to me that the fault lies, as accurately decribed in the displayed error message,with the floppy disc controller. This controller presumably resides on the motherboard? Is there anything more I can do before I junk the whole thing?
Amstrad answers: It'll depend whether you are willing to spend anything more on it. If you buy a multi-I/O card (you may pick one up for a tenner) then you can disable the 3386's onboard FDC, HDC, COM and LPT ports using the motherboard jumpers and then let the new multi-I/O handle everything and rewire all the bits to it.

Mark Grundy in Maldon, Essex at 14:5:0 Tuesday January 13 98
I have recently replaced the 40MB hard drive in my PC3286 with a 135MB. Is it possible for me to use the old 40MB drive as a 'D' drive, as it seems a waste not to use it for something.
Amstrad answers: Depends on the HD controllers you are using. I presume the 135 is an IDE drive and you've got an IDE controller card for it? The 40 drive was an RLL and while I know that in the past I used to have two HD controllers in my 2386 (which is the same as 3286 in this respect) - one was RLL and the other ESDI - this was only possible because the ESDI controller was VERY clever and could be configured to reside as a second controller. I guess that both the existing RLL controller from the 3286 and your new controller for the 135 are both pretty "dumb" so I doubt whether they could be co-resident. Having said that is it really worth all the effort for a 40MB drive? You can now get about 2GB (50 TIMES 40MB!!) for under £100 and older 500MB drives are available for a lot less so I'd consider migrating everything to a single bigger drive if I were you.

Richard Hann in Ipswich at 13:44:37 Tuesday January 13 98
Flattery first: I have just found this site and am incredibly impressed by it. Now for the question: I have a PC1640 with an ECD monitor, and want to use the monitor on an AT with a VEGA card. Having connected it all up and set the VEGA and Windows to EGA, what I get on the screen is clear and usable, but only occupies 75% of the available area. There are no width or height controls, so I have taken the back off and have been able to adjust presets for the horizontal position, so that the image is centred, and have expanded it vertically to fill the screen, but there are still those big bands of black on either side. Can you please tell me where to find the width adustment? Is it the coil with a jammed core next to the heatsinked (?flyback) diode? I know about the dangerous voltages, but would appreciate some guidance as to the best thing to tweak.
Amstrad answers: Well flattery would normally get you anywhere but I'm afraid I simply don't have the answer. There definitely WAS a service manual for the ECD monitor but whether it's still available from www.cpc.co.uk is another question. Having said that, in my time, I have used our ECD monitors on a wide variety of EGA cards and never had a problem with size (as the bishop said to the actress!) so I wonder if you've got a card that is in some way configurable for it's horizontal scan frequency (though EGA cards normally weren't) - have you tried a different EGA monitor on it?

Demian De Wit in Some school in Belgium at 8:9:42 Tuesday January 13 98
I bought a PDA600. Frustrated by the fact that I had to buy new batteries for it every 2 weeks, I tried to connect a 4.5 volt regulated power supply to it. The first few minutes, everything went fine, but then the PenPad just went blank. Now I can't start it, not with the power supply, not with ordinary batteries. It just seems dead. Is my PDA broken for good, or is there component(fuse?)that I can replace? I'm really desperate, because I find the PDA a wonderful product but now I can't make use of it!
Amstrad answers: The power circuit in a PDA is very sensitive to the way the power "dies away" for alkaline AA cells. If you used some other power source it's shutdown circuitry may have been mightily confused and data corrupted during shutdown. I'd guess that if you remove all power (including the lithium cell) then short the battery contacts to make sure any residual capacitance is discharged (or leave it for half an hour) and then reapply power it should come back to life (though naturally you will have lost all your data but I'm afraid that's probably ineviatble now).

clifford in Alfriston, East Sussex at 16:28:38 Saturday January 10 98
Hi Cliff a colleauge has an Amstrad 1640 which he currently uses for his business, which serves his purpose and does not wish to upgrade the computer unnecessarily. However, is this computer year 2000 compatable. Thanks from another Cliff
Amstrad answers: Arrrrghhhh! Raw nerve...Gurgle, Wibble, Wibble... You have no idea how many times I've answered this question and it's starting to send me potty.
There are two 2K problems, the first (and only one that really concerns PC users) is trivial and is simply the question as to whether the PC will show the right date on the Saturday morning after the party. To tell you the truth I don't know what the answer is for our 10-12 year old computers because we simply do't have any old ones left here any more. However what I do know is that if I wanted to find out if a computer could hack it I'd go to the C:\> prompt and type DATE 31/12/99 followed by TIME 23:59 and then switch the computer off and wait a minute or two. Switch on and then type DATE and TIME to see what it thinks. (If anyone does this on an Amstrad PC1512/1640/2086/3086/3286/3386/etc would you please email me and let me know what happens). If, shock horror, this should fail to work right then, Oh my God!, it means that on Saturday 1st January 2000 you are going to have to take 10 seconds of your precious time to type in a DATE command to put it right again (I do that with my wrist watch every month with less than 31 days!!). This is NOT A BIG DEAL!! It isn't worth people getting worked up about and demanding BIOS changes etc. It's just something the computer doesn't do automatically but which it is easy to do manually - so what?

The above is NOT the millenium bug. The thing that IS the millenium bug is also know as the "Marks and Spencer corned beef problem" and stems from the fact that mainframe computer systems (not PCs generally) sometimes still run software that was written 30 or more years ago and in those days a single byte of memory was more precious than rocking horse droppings so in an effort to conserve as much memory as possible the programs encoded the year part of dates into a single byte held as two BCD digits (which in itself was a ridiculous waste because a byte holding BCD can only hold 00..99 whereas a byte holding a binary value could represent 0..255 and if they'd done that there may not have been a problem (if, for example years had been encoded as the year after 1960 then this would allow for dates up to 2215!!)).
The BCD system works fine up to 1999 (which is held as 99) but falls over at 2000 because it is held as just 00. So, the classic example, M&S received a shipment of corned beef in early 1997 (held as 97) which had a shelf life of 5 years which meant that it would be good until 2002 (held as 02) so the M&S stock control system did the sum 02 - 97 = -95 and concluded that the corned beef was 95 years PAST it's sell by!! THAT is the millenium bug and, like I said, it doesn't really affect PC software because it has been written in recent years when storage hasn't been such a limited resource. However there are some idiot programmers out there who may have inadvertently introduced errors of this type in more modern software. Anyway even if your PC software has problems of this nature that is something you should take up with the software authors - not the PC manufacturer.

steve whiteford in basingstoke hampshire at 10:59:51 Saturday January 10 98
is there an after market for older amstrad pc's. i have apc8086 that i wish to sell. any ideas ?
Amstrad answers: I'm not entirely sure what you mean by an "apc8086" as we never produced a model with that number but to answer the general question about secondhand Amstrad PCs (or anyone's for that matter) there isn't much of a market for 8086 based PCs these days so you might expect a colour monitor PC1512 to be sold in the classifieds of your local paper at about £15-20, a PC1640 with ECD monitor and 20MB hard drive might command £20-30 and a PC2/3086 with VGA monitor could fetch as much as £40 if you were lucky but if you get a copy of something like Micro Mart you'll see that these days you can pick up a VGA 386 with 4MB RAM and 80MB hard disk for as little as £50 so why would anyone go for an 8086 or 80286 unless they were REALLY desparate,

Andy Scott in Ascot, Berkshire at 7:21:23 Saturday January 10 98
I have just aquired a 3386 without a hard disc drive, thinking that I could get it running using the hard disk from my old Viglen 286. Having fitted the disc drive, on booting the machine, I get the error message - 'Floppy disc controller or disc drive error' I've tried booting from the floppy disc drive, but the boot process doesn't seem to get that far. I'd be extremely grateful for any light you could shed.
Amstrad answers: The question would seem to be whether you get that floppy error message even if you remove the Viglen drive all togther. If you do then maybe it suggest that you have just knocked off the floppy cable while fitting the hard drive if you don't then (obviously?) it's an interaction caused by the Viglen drive in which case the next question would be whether you really expect it to work? I think the HD controller in a 3386 is IDE but there's a pretty strong chance that an HD from an old 286 may actually be MFM or RLL. Are you sure it's an IDE?

Ray in Sheffield at 18:52:27 Friday January 9 98
I have an Amstrad Integra P90. The computer recently started up in safe mode without being asked. We now find we have lost access to the D drive. How can we get it back, please. We cannot get through to the help line on the telephone. Many thanks.
Amstrad answers: Suggest we try and diagnose this via email. My first question to you is what exactly you mean by "D:". Had you partitioned the hard disk or do you mean the CD drive?

wendy smith in In an office in Bath at 16:46:15 Friday January 9 98
No way am I reading through all the questions I think I'd die of boredom! My question is quite simple has anyone out there got Donkey Kong - the Commodore 64 version that will play on a PowerMac or know of a web site I can download it from? Cheers!
Amstrad answers: Well that says a lot about the intelligence of Commode 64 users. I don't suppose it had struck you that this is an AMSTRAD page - dur! I don't suppose you'll have enough brain cells to understand this, but have you ever tried the Usenet newsgroup news:alt.c64 ?

Martin Brooks in Bridgwater, Somerset, UK at 13:48:23 Wednesday January 7 98
This question is about an Amstrad 2286 with Windows V2.3 and a Logitech mouse. The mouse is connected using the serial port on the PC and works perfectly outside of Windows 2.3. However, once Windows is loaded the mouse stops working. The mouse came with Logitech's old pop-up DOS front-end, this is working fine and gives access to all exceptspecific Windows applications. Has anyone any idea how to get the mouse working without upgrading either the mouse or Windows?
Amstrad answers: Sounds to me like you need to contact Logitech and ask them for their Windows 2.x driver for their mouse though I kind of doubt whether they'll still have such an antique piece of software available but you never know! Another tack would be to contact Microsoft and see if they ever issued updated drivers for Windows 2.x to include Logitech but then again you may not get very far as I've previously looked on their web site for old Windows stuff and they don't seem to have anything pre Win 3.1 (not even Win 3.0).

pippi at 1:47:58 Tuesday January 6 98
Can I use a 3086 keyboard whit an MS-Dos 386 PC of other Brands?
Amstrad answers: Nope, I'm afraid the keyboards on all Amstrad's early PCs (pre 5xxx series) used a weird and wonderful "Amstrad only" interface (to prevent IBM patent infringement) and so they are only usable on Amstrads.

Nigel Wheeler in Kingswinford, West Midlands at 21:43:25 Sunday January 4 98
I (stupidly) formated my c: drive without backing up my Integravision software. I backed up the file folder but not the .dll files in the windows folder. I have now downloaded replacement software from your website but am having difficulty with their installation. Please could you give me some guidance in this. My machine is an Amstrad Integra P75. Does the MPEG software in your download page need an MPEG card fitted to the Integravision card or is it a software only application?
Amstrad answers: Fraid that software I've got available for download kind of comes "as is". All I did was to take a snapshot of the working software on my parent's Integra and assume that if you install this on your own machine then it'll just work. I think the ZIP does need to be unzipped with -D to create the right directory structure but after that, you are on your own. As far as I know the "MPEG" software that is included is just a software only player but I've never really investigated that. If you want to email me personally at cliffl@amstrad.com then I'll try to help you further with the installation but it'll probably have to wait until next time I visit my parents.

William Manley in ORPINGTON, KENT at 12:41:37 Sunday January 4 98
I HAVE A 1512 I WISH TO DONATE TO CHARITY, RATHER THAN TAKE DOWN THE DUMP - CAN YOU SUGGEST HOW I GO ABOUT THIS.
Amstrad answers: My copy of the Yellow Pages has a section for "Charity shops" doesn't your's?

Damian McMillan in London at 15:24:56 Saturday January 3 98
Can the Amstrad PC 1512 take an internal EGA card? I want to upgrade from mono CGA....
Amstrad answers: Well I would have said a quite definite "No" as there is no way to disable the on-board CGA controller as it is part of a gate array and doesn't have a link/jumper for disabling it (which is something that Amstrad were heavily criticised for which is why we changed things in the 1640!). Having said that I remember visiting a computer show about 10 years ago where a company were selling an EGA "upgrade" for the 1512 but it involved cutting some of the PCB tracks to install it. However I'm pretty sure that the company will have gone out of business a long long time ago so I think the answer is still "No". Considering that you can pick up an EGA 1640 with colour monitor second hand for about £25-30 would you not consider following that route instead? I've seen 386 machines with VGA and hard drive being sold refurbished/second hand for as little as £80-100 so if you could stretch the pennies I'd highly recommend that as an idea - let's face it that in this day and age an 8MHZ 8086 computer such as the 1512 is little more than an antique!

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